Charlotte Darwen, 26, appeared to have it all: two young children, a forthcoming wedding, luxury holidays, new car, deposit on a house, jewellery, designer clothes and regular seats at star-studded charity balls and sporting events.

She was due to marry her childhood sweetheart, and lost around three stone at slimming classes as she counted down the days to her lavish ceremony at a Tudor country mansion.

But unknown to the groom-to-be, family and friends, Darwen was propping up her fairytale life of luxury by secretly gambling on high stakes online games - and stealing money from her employers to fund it.

Despite earning just £15,000 a year as an accounts assistant more than £800,000 had been paid as income into her personal bank account over a three-year period.

She won around £300,000 from her betting sprees but spent most of her winnings on luxuries including a trip to Wembley, sports dinners,and concerts, including events where she was pictured with cyclist Sir Bradley Wiggins and singer Ronan Keating.

She also spent £5,000 on cosmetic surgery, £10,000 towards a car and a £48,000 deposit on a house.

By the time her fraud was uncovered Darwen, of Leigh had blown £419,000 on her gambling sprees alone.

Darwen was later arrested and inquiries showed £508,120 had been unwittingly paid into her account by the firm and £419,500 had been used to fund her gambling habit.

The stolen money was the equivalent of 12 workers' wages at family-run motor claims company Action 365 Ltd based at Stockport, Greater Manchester.

The company had since to lay off several staff and now has almost half the workforce it used to have.

Pictures on Darwen’s Facebook page showed enjoying a string of luxury holidays in Majorca, Florida and and several luxury cruises.

At Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court Darwen burst into tears after she was jailed for three years having admitted fraud.

Her wedding to fiance Harrison James, also 26, whom she has been with since they were 19 has been cancelled but the couple are still together.

Passing sentence Judge Maurice Greene told Darwen: “What you did has had an almost devastating effect on this company, members of the company, staff - people who trusted you.”

The frauds came to light in December 2013 during a company audit.

Darwen had even made a transfer whilst on maternity leave when she came into the company for a ‘keep in touch day’.

The court heard the company could not keep staff in work and had to make a large number of redundancies.

In mitigation Edmund Haygarth said: “She was friendly with some of the people who suffered because of her actions. She feels she has betrayed the good upbringing she was given.”

Today neighbours of Charlotte’s in Leigh, Manchester said they were constantly taking parcel deliveries for her home.

One said: They always had parcels being dropped off although most of the time they didn’t pick them up so I had to remind them. Soon I just stopped taking them because there wasn’t enough room in my small porch.”

Another neighbour who declined to be named said: “All we saw was a woman wanting to play the perfect middle-class wife.

"She seemed to have it all - but it just shows how appearances can fool us all.”